Details few for proposed grand library at Great Park

IRVINE – Mayor Steven Choi wants to build a library at the Orange County Great Park. And not just any library.

Although there's no specific plan – or cost – Choi envisions something on the scale of 200,000 square feet, with a coffee shop, an auditorium, a children's section, a public computer room and more. That would be larger than Irvine's first Walmart, the 134,376-square-foot store at 71 Technology Drive.

The Newport Beach Public Library, which Choi and consultants toured last year, is 54,000 square feet with a plan to expand to 71,000 square feet this year.

Choi, who has a doctorate in library information science, has said constructing the library will be one of his top priorities as mayor.

Councilwoman Beth Krom questions the finances. She also questions whether Irvine, where most residents have computers and often the latest technology to access books, needs something of that scale.

"I'm a detail person," she said. She didn't hear the details she needed to have an opinion on the plan after Choi's recent State of the City address.

Councilwoman Christina Shea also mentioned the financial difficulty that might come with building a library so large. "I think it's a great vision," she said, adding that she sees it as a long-term investment at the park.

Irvine would fund it from excess property taxes that would have normally gone to the county library system, as well as community fundraising. Naming rights to the library itself could also be sold, Choi said.

He proposed creating what would be called the Irvine Library Foundation, which would augment any other funding efforts. Similarly, the Foundation for the Great Park (known as the Great Park Conservancy) aims to support the park's development through fundraising.

A large portion of the funding would come from an agreement the city made with the county and its library system a year ago to cap Irvine's annual property tax contribution. Any property tax growth above 2 percent – affected by new home sales, home values being reassessed, etc. – would stay with Irvine, Choi said. Once the library is built – several years, if that, from now – Choi said he envisions the county operating it though through a cooperative model.

He doesn't know how much it will cost, speculating that it could cost $100 million, but says the foundation would be launched early in the process to get a jump on making the library happen. Choi said no Great Park funds would pay for the library because there aren't enough funds there.

He and a few others – an architect, a Great Park staff member and a library consultant group – went on a fact-finding mission last year to tour several Southern California libraries. "We have a pretty good idea what we'd like to do," he said in a phone interview a day after delivering his State of the City address.

A library was included in the Great Park's original master plan to sit near proposed museums on the park's "cultural terrace."